Christmas in November? Bring it on
Every year it seems that stores bring the holidays earlier and earlier. Toward the end of August, two months before Halloween, I saw stores starting to stock up on big bags of Halloween candy and decorations to hang outside your house to invite trick-or-treaters.
Similarly, there are already Christmas decorations starting to pop up in stores. Though I haven’t personally seen any yet, many people I know have said there were already Chrsitmas decorations in Walmart two weeks before Halloween.
What’s the hurry? Halloween isn’t even over yet and we already have to get ready for Christmas. Whatever happened to Thanksgiving?
I wouldn’t mind this if it didn’t seem to ruin the fun in celebrating holidays. Seeing stores display so many gifts and decorations imposes the idea that holidays are all about buying things which you’ll only use once a year.
And you tend to lose sight of what the holiday really means if all you can think about are the things you need to buy. But stop and think: Does all that really matter?
It’s not like spending money for holidays is a bad thing. Many people enjoy the preholiday fervor. And everyone likes getting gifts. After a month it can get boring if you have to look at the same decorations whenever you make a trip to the store.
Not only have stores started bringing the holidays earlier, they’re also expanding their horizons. Hallmark for instance supplies Diwali cards in addition to their usual array of holiday cards. It seems that the usual holidays aren’t good enough for them. Will they try to ruin the spirit of hoidays from other cultures as well?
Perhaps if stores waited until a few weeks before holidays instead of months before, then people would look forward to Christmas and other holidays more than they do now. It doesn’t seem like they’ll change anytime soon, however.
In the meantime, I’m going to get ready for Christmas.
— Avanti Chajed
Comments
Do you really think that Hallmark intends to suck the spirit out of other holidays by including such things as Diwali cards? Or could they possibly be trying to include other religious groups in the holiday fervor? After seeing rows and rows of cards adorned with trees, doesn’t it make you smile (even a tiny tiny bit) to see a Diwali card that you could give to your mother? In fact, rather than condemn Hallmark and such organizations, I would wholeheartedly support their efforts to include a larger demographic by catering to their culture rather than families who often feel compelled to do the tree and decorations because they’re there and they don’t find decorations and such for their own holidays.
Posted by: Dana Al-Qadi | November 16, 2006 1:07 PM